Children of Men by ; Eric Newman; Hilary Shor; ; Tony Smith; Alfonso Cuarón; Timothy J. Sexton; David Arata; Mark Fergus; Hawk Ostby Review by: Michael Joshua Rowin Cinéaste, Vol. 32, No. 2 (SPRING 2007), pp. 60-61 Published by: Cineaste Publishers, Inc Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41690478 . Accessed: 08/09/2014 23:30

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This content downloaded from 150.207.145.65 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 23:30:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions (albeit,largely unelaborated) of his fictional obtaintransit papers for a youngblack Children of Men world'schaotic state and ofthe worldwide refugee,Kee (Claire-HopeAshitey). Self- imminentextinction Producedby Marc Abraham, Eric Newman, infertilitythreatening interestedTheo does so (his and Julian's ofthe human while to each other HilaryShor, lain Smith, and Tony Smith; race, reflectingback attractionto hasn'tdissipated, theaudience its own and the evenafter the loss of theirchild and the writtenby Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. gaze initiating film's aesthetic the take. oftheir Sexton,David Arata, Mark Fergus, and Hawk prime strategy, long breakup marriage),joining Julian, Evenwhen not shotsof rebelLuke and Ostby;directed by Alfonso Cuarón; based on using noticeably (ChiwetelEjiofor), Kee, theP.D. James novel Children ofMen; lengthyduration, Cuarón and cinematogra- Kee's caretaker, Miriam (Pam Ferris), along EmmanuelLubezki; pherEmmanuel Lubezki (renowned for his fora carride to thecoast where Kee will be cinematographyby workon TerrenceMalick's The New off.But the - andin the editedby Alfonso Cuarón and Alex Rodriguez; World) dropped along way Jim and displayin long shots a detailedmise-en-scène film's first major set piece,the one that productiondesign by Clay Geoffrey to rivalthe lived-in of Blade is Kirkland;costume Tenine; vivid, quality makesit clearChildren of Men something designby Jany Runner- bleakruin and urban - music JohnTavener; Clive chaos,the outof the ordinary the crew gets ambushed by original by starring streets and multitudinousterrorist-looters who a Owen,, plaguedby terrorism, protesters, push Claire-HopeAshitey, and in thecar's and set andMichael Caine. Color, 109 mins. A religiousfanatics, patrolledby police burningvehicle path UniversalPictures release. throwinginto detainment camps all illegal upon it withrocks, Molotov cocktails, immigrantswho've escaped destroyed coun- motorcycles,and guns. The sequence is shot Whiledeparting from the majority of triesto seekrefuge ("Only Britain Soldiers in one continuoustake that flawlessly navi- contemporaryaction movies in itsunique On" blaresa publicservice announcement gates within the confines of thecar (and, styleand blatant political leanings, Children warningcitizens against harboring refugees). towardthe shot's conclusion, outside it) to ofMen mightbe theexemplary post-9/11 Theo'sbrush with death barely changes capturechaos at jiistthe right moments, a filmfor its genre.For hereis a veritable his outlook. As a disillusionedformer panopticalsurvey with action occurring on pieceof mass entertainment, one providing activistand presentgovernment bureaucrat multipleplanes and oftendisappearing thevicarious rush of action, adventure, and he has,like the world around him, given up beyondthe scope of the lens. heroismessential for drawing the large audi- hopein the future. He looksforward only to Duringthis staging of the most intricate enceit and an extremelynervous Universal hissojourns to therustic, hidden neohippie cinematicchoreography, Julian is shotand Pictures(which, according torumors, dumped compoundof best friend and politicalcar- killed,a dramaticblow to Theo.The sur- whatthey assumed to be an uncommercialtoonist Jasper () - together vivorsescape the police and find safe haven filmduring the annual December/January they alleviate their troubles by smoking pot at a Fishmember's farm. There Kee reveals firesale) obviously covet; and yet here is also and makingdark jokes about thehellish toTheo the reason for her illegal transporta- a filmthrowing the concept of the vicarious reality(government-approved suicide kits, tion- she'spregnant. The Fishes want to get rushinto doubt to suchan extentthat it forone) in whichthey live. Things change herto theHuman Project, a rumoredorga- shiftsthe very boundaries which once more forTheo, however, when he getsabducted nizationof the world's best scientists dedi- clearlydemarked the separation of realism bya groupcalled the Fishes, quasipeaceful catedto understandingand remedyingthe andheroism, political iconography and fan- undergroundrebels (most bombings, we world'sgreatest mystery. But the Fishes also tasticalmythology. These tensions at the learn,are actuallyperpetrated by the gov- havedesigns to useher impending baby as a centerof Childrenof Men, directed by Y Tu ernmentand blamed on thisfaction to fos- 'flag'to rallythe dispossessed around their Mamá Tambiénand HarryPotter and the ter fearand reinforcesupport for the cause,an opportunisticmove Theo finds Prisonerof Azkaban s AlfonsoCuarón, are authorities- a directallusion to paranoia suspicious.Later that evening Theo overhears a directlyrelated to its very different represen- concerningthe causes of 9/11) that demand conversationbetween new Fish leader Luke tation of violent spectacle. Venturing fullrights for immigrants. The Fishes are led andPatric () - theambush beyondconventional entertainment and byTheo's ex- wife Julian (Julianne Moore), wasa set-upand coup, meant to moveLuke intothe realm of simulated reportage, Chil- whoasks - or,rather, bribes - thedivorced intopower and allowthem to use Kee and drenof Men employs stunning verisimilitude husband she hasn't seen for twenty years to herchild. Knowing their livelihoods are in withinits mise- en- scène, raising the stakes of danger,Theo, to whomKee hasplaced her intenseaction and at thesame time, inten- unconditionaltrust, leads the pregnant girl tionallyor not, questioning exactly what it is and Miriamout of thefarm in a thrilling audiencesseek in thesedisplays. It's a pro- scenenot as pronouncedas thepreceding found,unsettling amalgam expressing the setpiece but nonetheless intensely suspenseful. crisisof and for relevant entertainment a lit- Theremainder of the film plays out as a tlemore than five years after the events of race againsttime to meetthe brazenly September11 havealtered American view- namedTomorrow ship that will bring Kee ers'relationship toon-screen catastrophe. andher baby, born in transit, to the Human Childrenof Mens openingscene func- Project.Cuarón's reliance on theintegrity of tionsas expositionand statementof intent: theshot rather than the impact of the cut, in a Londoncafé, in theyear 2027, a group however,applies a differentlook and feel to of dazedviewers glance up at a television standardaction-movie fare, and his allu- monitorbroadcasting breaking news of the sionsto the Holocaust,Abu Ghraib,the deathof the world's youngest person, "Baby GuantanamoBay detainment camp, Middle Diego," eighteenyears old. Theo (Clive East riots,and ThirdWorld conditions Owen)moves through the crowd, orders a complicatethe notion of the film as easily coffee,and, after a cutback from the TV digestibleproduct. The film'sclimax and screen,walks outside in an unbrokenshot. A piècede résistancetakes place in a walledcity fewyards down the street he adjuststhe lid fordetained refugees that Theo and Kee of his papercup, and withoutwarning a haveclandestinely entered in orderto ren- bombdestroys the café he hadjust exited; a dezvouswith the ship. Fascistic police prac- survivorstumbles out of the wreckage tices,ghetto chaos, and burntbodies greet screamingand missinga limb. In this Theo() is recruitedfor a truly theirarrival. As in theopening's logistical momentCuarón establishesthe cause humanitarianmission in Children ofMen. attentionto thedecline of civilization, the

60 CINEASTE,Spring 2007

This content downloaded from 150.207.145.65 on Mon, 8 Sep 2014 23:30:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions closingchapter unflinchingly portrays the horrorand squalorof institutional oppres- sion,from bombed out tenementsto dog- eat-dogsurvival tactics. When Theo and Kee escapethe city during the throes of an all- out war agitatedby 'liberating'Fishes, Cuarónand Lubezki once again display their commitmentto sequentiallong takes that maintainTheo and Kee as themain points ofinterest but often refuse to privilegethem overthe anarchy unfolding around them. Centralcharacters die likeextras, with the entirescene - and,most unforgettably, the slaughterof refugees- pointing to theexis- tenceof such atrocities beyond the space of themovie theater. In herclassic essay "The Imagination of Disaster,"Susan Sontag characterized the contemporaneous(Fifties and Sixties)sci- ence-fictionfilm as dealingin "the aesthetics ofdestruction" by which "one can partici- patein thefantasy of living through one's owndeath and more, the death of cities, the destructionof humanity itself." She wrote that" films are one of the Soldiersstop in the midst of combat to listento the sound of a cryingbaby in Children ofMen. purestforms of spectacle;that is, we are rarelyinside anyone's feelings... Science fic- thefilm's nearly embarrassing messianism, of its fallible characters due to itsdeempha- tionfilms invite a dispassionate,aesthetic in theform of lessthan a fatherlesssis on effectsand - nothing special productiondesign; viewof destruction and violence a techno- pregnancyand the birth of mankind's savior but Childrenof Men mustaccede to the logicalview." What would Sontag make of (significantly,as L Magazine'sMark Asch demandsof its mass audience for recogniz- ChildrenofMen, a twenty-first- century sci-fi haspointed out, in a refugeecamp)? Nearly ablestructures and character arcs - bystrip- extravaganzain the dystopic vein? Cuarón's embarrassingbecause this somehow works ping substantiveissues of all but their longshots and long takes engage in a clearly forthe film, which refuses to entirelydrop iconography,the film's spectacles function soughtestheticism, rendering disaster excit- itsrealistic integrity for false idealism: when as politics,its politics as spectacles. ingto theeye (and mannato cinephiles). Theo,Kee, and herchild exit the bombed- Whenone acknowledgesthe context in Butbecause destruction and violencein outbuilding from where he rescues her, they whichChildren of Men exists as entertain- ChildrenofMen are not only perpetrated by leavein theirwake stunned and reverent ment,the thenbecomes whether - question citizenson one another insteadof some onlookers- freedomfighters, refugees, and Cuarónstrategically works subversive ele- stand-byOther in theform of a machine, soldiersalike - who to mentsinto a blockbusteror elserenews the - stop skirmishing monster,or alien butalso because the cin- marvelat themiracle before them, only to sci-fi/actionhybrid by meansof topical ematicrepresentation of destructionand returnto mayhemmoments later, any unifi- material.Even more than War of the Worlds , violenceechoes widely circulated images of cationsadly temporary. Childrenof Men will mostlikely split its real-lifecruelty and war,the technological Nonetheless,Children of Men again fol- audienceinto those who see it as a cynical view is mitigatedand the human view lowsWar of the Worlds by offering - not as a exploitationof the present complex geopo- amplified.If, according to Sontag,"the lure lastresort as in Spielberg'sfilm but, rather, liticalsituation for purposes of cinematic ofgeneralized disaster as a fantasyis thatit put in placefrom the beginning - humble showmanshipand those who see it as a gen- releasesone from normal obligations," then individualheroism amidst ubiquitous uinelyprovocative warning about our Childrenof Men fails to entirelytransport Even if its formulaicnarrative future.Such divisiveness - despair. potential proves thespectator in an escapistmanner one (includingthe redemptive theme of ' vs. the New DisasterFilm's relatively more gaspsat thefilm's creative and technical chance'applied to Theo'sredeemed white 'responsible'confrontations with death and achievements,but there's little unthinking, male hero) is an accessiblegateway to the destructionplay out, purposely or innately, amoralpleasure taken from viewing horren- film'ssubversive surprises, it sheds light on as radicalesthetics, as rousingspectacles dous urbanconditions and theassault on themixed motivations behind New Disaster expoundingon thevery nature of spectacle. therefugee city, or the acts of brother killing Filmslike itselfand War of theWorlds. Andyet these films never fully relinquish brotherfostered by political extremism and Thosewho've criticized Children of Men for the servitudeto universalcatharsis their rawsurvival. In thissense, Children of Men failing,unlike the P.D. Jamesnovel on staturein themarketplace demands - their tethersits esthetic designs to an eschatologi-which it is based,to sufficientlyexamine the exorcismof public trauma is rootedpartly cal realismrarely seen before from films of moreprobable ramifications ofits apocalyp- in consciousreassessment and partlyin itsbox-office clout. As withSteven Spiel- tic missthe Cuarónuses a familiarities.How filmmakers - premise point: reassuring berg'sWar of the Worlds which, while not hypotheticalscenario not to engagephilo- continueto portraylarge-scale devastation explicitlypolitical, alluded to theSeptember and ethicaldebate, but to reflect andthe of9/1 1, and how audi- - sophical iconography 11 attacksinits harrowing scenes of massacre back to viewersthe political language of ences react to theirofferings, will be itsentertainment is haunted by the specter theirown time while offering a humanistic informedby these initial, ambivalent efforts, of large-scalecatastrophe resolutely seen messageof hope ostensibly meant to tran- determiningwhether a humanityand seri- andexperienced from a humanperspective. scendthe complications of actualpolitics. ousnessconcerning the representation of Butin another sense, Cuarón recuperates An art-houseentry like Michael Haneke's large-scaleviolence will be thenew cinemat- themissing dimension of epic fantasyby Timeof the Wolf which employed an even ic orderor whetherHollywood will manu- infusingChildren of Men with unmistakable thinner catastrophic pretext, can intimatelyfacture the usual entertainmentsin an mythologicalovertones. How else to explain explorepatterns of chaos and thebehavior updatedguise .- MichaelJoshua Rowin

CINEASTE,Spring 2007 61

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